The trip

Driving from Saint Louis, MO to Elderton, PA seems like a normal thing to do, to me. My neighbors (as well as others in MO) seemed to think that I was rather foolish for packing up myself, a 5 year old and a 3 year old, and two cats (14 and 13) for the (what turned out to be a) 13 hour trip. 701 miles. I drove the whole thing. I'm proud!

My mom came with us so she could help when the girls needed things, but they are needing things less and less on our trips. They really are seasoned travelers, and that makes me feel proud! I don't want my girls to be the type to sit around and never travel more than 30 miles from where they were born. There are so many people (esp in this place) who seem to be content to be like that. I can't imagine. Thank God.

The girls watched DVDs, mom and I planned a few things about our cruise (Feb 2009), we all played the ABC game, and some car BINGO. It was (dare I say it?) FUN!

Now, how I feel about leaving MO for so long? More on that later. I thought it was going to be a good thing...now I'm not so sure? I reserve the right to make a judgement on that a few days from now when I see if things around my mom's house change. The girls are having all of the behavior issues that they had when Todd left. They are trying hard to adjust to having grandparents around to help disipline (and having these grandparents who are hell bent on disiplining (did I spell that right?) them is ROUGH on them). Kara had a horrible melt down the first night (tired did NOT help) and today Leah melted down as well. I think I just need to spend some one on one time with them, just playing and TOUCHING Leah (Leah seems to respond well to physical touch...Kara HATES it when she's upset)...go figure...they are opposite about everything in life.

All in all...things are okay. It's still lonely missing Todd, but at least I'm not alone anymore. If that makes any sense at all.

Now to make our plans for the next few weeks. Need to head down to VA, then to Todd's mom's in PA, then to my sister's house for a while. Back here, then we're back to MO and waiting for Leah to start Kindergarten. Then, shortly after, Todd is home and VACATION TO DISNEY it is!!!! Can't wait.